High Performance Nutrition for Swim Meets, Competitions and Carnivals

Swim-Eats (Swim-Meets): A Guide for Swimmers, Coaches, Parents and Clubs

Nutrition is an important area of successful sports performance in any sport.

Swimmers need to eat nutritious foods to compete and train to the best of their ability. Coaches need to ensure that swimmers are eating well and re-hydrating to complement their training program. Parents want to help their kids achieve their goals and are keen to support them in every possible way.

Swim Clubs and swimming organisations, selling food and drink at Swim Meets need to ensure that a variety of highly nutritious healthy options that can still generate income and raise funds are available to the swimmers.

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Speed Reserve for Middle and Long Distance Swimmers

The Importance of Speed for Middle  and Long Distance Swimmers

The eternal coaching question – how much speed is necessary for endurance athletes?

At the present time in world swimming there are many opportunities for swimmers who are capable of sustaining fast speeds over middle and long distance races. Particularly in woman’s swimming where World and Australian Records have stood for many years, the ability to be fast over 400, 800 and 1500 metres presents a great opportunity for the female swimmer prepared to do a little work and focus on these events.

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Six Steps to Swimming Greatness

Successful swimming is a combination of several factors: Fitness, speed, strength, technique, motivation, skills, good nutrition, positive attitude, self confidence and flexibility, are all important to swim fast.

However, there are six specific factors that have been identified as being essential for peak swimming performance.

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Sequential Loading of Training Microcyles

This article addresses some of ways to plan a short training microcycle for competitive swimmers. A creative approach to the planning of training sessions is essential to maintain an adequate adaptation stimulus.

The term microcycle (the weekly training plan including details on each individual session) is used widely but sometimes misunderstood and confused with macrocycle (combination of several microcycles over a period of a few weeks).

Once the various cycles are organised within the season or yearly plan, the detailing of individual training sessions can begin.

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What does “READY” feel like?

Warming up is something all swimmers do to prepare to swim fast.

But why warm up?

From a scientific standpoint we know that an effective warm up:

• Increases body temperature
• Increases heart rate
• Increases blood pressure
• Increases energy-producing enzyme activity

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The Power Circle Concept in Swimming

Power on – Power off: The Power Circle

There are two key phases in all swimming strokes: The work phase and the rest or recovery phase.

In the work phase, when the arms are applying force to the water, muscles are working hard to propel the body through the water. Generally the arms and hands are moving backwards – i.e., towards the end of the pool you are swimming away from. This feels like you are “pushing” the water backwards, but you are actually pulling your body forward. Ideally, the hand will scull in the same plane with the body moving forward past the hand.

In the recovery phase, arms are moving forward in the direction of the end of the pool you are swimming towards. In butterfly, backstroke and freestyle the arms are recovered out of the water and in breaststroke (for most swimmers) arms are recovered just under the surface. Read the rest of this entry »

Physiology for Swimming Coaches

Heart Rate, Lactates and all that Stuff

Coaches are always looking for an edge, a new idea or innovative technique that might provide their athletes with a performance advantage.

Sports scientists are in the same game. They search for evidence to support ideas that may lead to breakthroughs in sports training techniques and competition performances.

Sports science is not a magic trick or short cut or easy way to the top. The methods and techniques of sports science are tools – and like the tools of any trade their effectiveness lies in the skills of the user.

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Too Slow, Too Fast

One the most important decisions to make about training is how fast and how hard the training needs to be. The intensity level of the session is the key to achieving the goal of the session.

A common mistake made by many masters swimmers is to do their slow work too fast and fast work too slow.

The reason behind this often lies in the lifestyle of the masters swimmer. Masters swimmers usually have limited time for training owing to work, study, family and other commitments so they like to come to the pool, train for an hour and leave feeling fatigued and believing they have done a real workout, i.e. they want to feel tired.

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Promoting Performance Through Injury Prevention

By Peter Blanch, Australian Institute of Sport Physiotherapist and Co-author Wayne Goldsmith

Author, Peter Blanch, is a physiotherapist with the Australian Institute of Sport. He assisted with the preparation of a number of Australian National Teams with whom he travelled which included the teams for the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, and the World Championships in Rome. He has a strong conviction in regard to the prevention and management of injury. Together with ASI Sports Science Co-ordinator Wayne Goldsmith this article provides 10 simple tips to promote performance through injury prevention.

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